Monday, December 29, 2014

First one is Rylie's redesign, from an old webcomic of mine. She's a cyborg which fits in the game environment more than my last design. Bottom is Sgt. Hardcore, a throwback to another character from the same webcomic. This guy uses his powers to establish a new era where meta humans rule because of his warped view of Darwinism.

Not much to report about, I did download game maker and will be toying with that this week. Had some snafus in real life and work so I've been not as active... plus the holidays too.

Sunday, December 21, 2014

I posted an image on my Twitter feed for a character design update, and while I don't want to repost a small update on it, I'll post it here:

I changed some colors around compared to the pic on twitter because I realized the whites on her armmings (name escapes me atm) resemble a certain "party" minus the symbol so I had to change that haha. Belts are reddish instead of brown, trying to go for the systematic four color range. I even fixed her left eye because it seemed higher than the other, and her head was a bit too wide. Other than that I loved how this turned out, and now I need to start working on sprites, er again. I want to try out the Zelda aesthetic and try for an action game that way and experiment to see if I can get it to work on Construct 2.I have drawings of two boss characters and the big bad that I want to illustrate soon, though I'll put that off for a while to see if the Zelda approach works.--------------------------I want to post FFXIV and FFXV stuff so bad, but I tweeted it all. All I can say is so far, steps in the right direction. Between this, Street Fighter V, MGSV, Zelda U, and Xenoblade CXis gaming in the east making a comeback?Going to be an interesting gen.See you later!

Saturday, December 6, 2014

Twitter wouldn't be an idea place to post this. It's been over a month since I've updated this space it's about due for one.Haven't done much game devving since I finished Baxter's Venture Director's Cut a couple months back. It's still in Greenlight Limbo, not exactly sure if it'll ever get greenlit. It has been creeping up to the 10k vote threshold, though I think I need to find better avenues to get exposure. My efforts have been in vain lately so I've taken a break from all that before I get more discouraged.I've started another game project, started putting some concept art on Twitter with a female protagonist named Rylie, even started a sprite. However, working on a prototype in Construct 2 led me to understand my original plans won't be as fun as I had hoped. There have been some changes in her concept art, but I haven't had the chance to scan it and touch it, illustrate it, and post it due to my scanner still at my old apartment propping my modem and router while the maintenance crews fix up my apt due to flooding... they're nearly done and it looks like I'll be moving back next weekend if all goes well.Back to the game, it seems I'm letting discouragement set in. Since I became a Wii U dev I learned that if I tried to port my games on the dev kit (something I can't afford as of yet) it's not going to run as well. I've been wanting to start some kind of prototype to raise money for a dev kit, but getting a prototype has been holding me back as I'm not so sure what kind of game I should make. I fear if I don't produce something soon I could lose my privilege.Obviously, my strong point has always been platformers. Though I am considering a top-down Zelda style game, maybe an action RPG. Though after reading it seems like Construct 2 on Wii U you have to be VERY careful what you put in there because devs experienced severe slowdowns from having so many spites and animations at one time... I hope that isn't the case because it feels limiting considering what the system could do. Maybe it's limited for HTML5.Also I've had swirls of nostalgia hitting me like a ton of bricks, I want to take some older projects and reboot them for this new project instead, I tend to get indecisive when it comes to projects. Then it hit me why I never finish these. It's because these featured a male protagonist... and when you look at games and anime, just about every archetype of male protags have been done to DEATH. My character would of been an alter ego of mine, he'll be darker skinned than the typical male lead but my male characters always get compared to someone who already exists and it drives me bonkers.When a draw a female protagonist though... there IS no real comparison. Then I started to think all those articles of lack of female representation in gaming have a very strong point, and when I was doing crossover comics starring Tifa, Cammy, and even Mai from Fatal Fury all my strongest writing skills stemmed from those works compared to Cloud, Joe Higashi, and Solid Snake.Hell, I already have a very interesting backstory I wanted to try. I can't make this funny with a male protagonist:Rylie: "I once ran an INN in a remote village outside the castle walls. Day in and day out, I'd watch adventurers spend the night to refill their HP/MP. Ever since I was a little girl I longed for the days where I would fight side by side with would be heroes to save the world from danger. I see these heroes come in and I try to engage conversation and hear their stories of their adventures. In my off time, when I'm not being prepped for marriage, I spend it with an old rusted sword on training dummies in the courtyard."Rylie: "Oh how I envy them, if only I could quit this boring life and explore countless worlds!"Rylie: "The downfall of being an NPC is that you're -destined- to settle down, start a family. My arranged husband is just a mere coal miner... a fat, dumpy, boring coal miner..."(cue image of an exhausted Rylie wearing an apron, holding a laundry basket and two kids running amok while fat husband covered in soot sleeps on the couch)Rylie: "NO!! That does it THAT'S IT! Next wanna be heroes come in here I'm going to take their shit and go on an adventure, tradition be damned!"(Alex and Cassandra, the default RPG maker heroes walk inside, Alex draws his blade in a salute:)Alex: "Tally-ho innkeep, one bed please!"(Cass looks upon Alex in disgust)Cass: He means, two beds... *please*(Rylie grabs Alex's blade by the near tip and sucker punches the young hero, takes his sword and items, then takes off into the outskirts.)Cass: "Oh my... OH THANK GOD! Alex is no longer the hero so I don't have to marry him once we save the world, woohoo!. -- Oh, but wait. I can't be a RPG healer trope without a swordsman, hey lady wait for meeeeee! You can't fight monsters without heaaaaals!"(elsewhere in Skyrim)Coal Miner: "Babe, I'm home from another day in the mines. I was almost killed by a giant spider but luckily the Dragonborn was around to shout it to death. Yo babe? I don't smell any food... "Coal Miner: (looms over stove) Oh well I can make dinner I suppose, how hard could it be?(image of cottage on fire)(same image of cottage on fire, zoomed out where we see a dragon turning to the screen.)Ancient Dragon: Dragonspeak: "Iv Nyort Yil Krosis!" (It's meant to be jibberish) Translation: "Ain't I a stinker?"See? I came up with that in a matter of minutes. When I had G-man (alter ego) it took me a while to flesh out a backstory, because every hero's backstory has been done to death. I feel my creative strong points are working with something I have little knowledge about so I feel obligated to fill in the blank with whatever I choose and people can't compare it to something popular because it doesn't always exist! Sometimes miss doing Gman stories, I felt there was potential even if my art and writing were garbage in those days, maybe I need to face facts and come to terms those days are long over and there needs to be something new.I don't know if the Wii U HTML5 can handle a game that has a story, maybe I could do a basic LoZ type with a beginning and end. So much work to be done, but this weekend my attention is focused on Playstation's Experience. I am curious what more bombs will drop.Street Fighter V and Dragon's Dogma Online so far.Anyway, stay tuned!